Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos is asking Filipinos to be patient when it comes to registering their subscriber identity module or SIM cards.
This, after the first day of SIM registration last Dec. 27 was marred with glitches in the online portals set up by the country's telecommunications companies (telcos).
The registration of SIM cards is mandated by Republic Act (RA) No.11934 or the SIM Registration Act. Marcos is a principal author of the measure.
"Well dapat tandaan ng tao (the people should remember), and you know, this is a national effort. Of course being one of the primary authors of the bill, I'm a proponent of SIM card registration," Marcos said Tuesday, Jan. 3 during a press briefing in his district office.
"But this is a national effort, and sa lahat ng mga registered users (and to all registered users), if I'm not mistaken you have 180 days to register your SIM cards. That is the better part of six months," he said.
"I just ask for the patience of our kababayans (countrymen) and just to have them keep in mind, six months pa (There's still six months to go). Half a year is a long time," added the presidential son.
"Hopefully and ating mga kasama sa telco ay aayusin nila ang sistema at ang proseso (hopefully those in telcos will fix the system and the process) over the next six months.
"So sana naman, konting pasensya lang dahil alam natin na malaking bagay ang ganung kalaking numero ng tao ay magre-register ng SIM card (hopefully, they'll be a little more patient because we know that it's a big deal to have all those people register their SIM cards)," he said.
"It was not expected naman, but it didn't come as a surprise na yung araw, the first day, came with a few glitches and it wasn't as smooth as it could've been," Marcos noted.
"I think from the pronouncements the telcos have made, we can see naman na nakita nila kung saan yung problema at pinangako nila na aayusin nila (that they've seen where the problem lies and they've promised to fix it) within the next few days, not weeks," he said.
SIM cards are used on mobile devices such as smart phones and laptops.